Snake Spawn
by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: Harry's grown up, is married to Ginny and has one child, Lily Molly Potter. He's subject to odd fits of possession while she takes after Tom Riddle. Add one haughty snake and one Hogwarts letter and you have: pandemonium. Crack!fic. ABANDONED
1. Good Morning

Harry and Ginny Potter are happily married, while young Lily is about to begin at Hogwarts. Little does she know what awaits her there…"

"Normal speech, and parseltongue"

"_A snake is speaking"_

_Thoughts_

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**SNAKE SPAWN**

**CHAPTER ONE**

Harry was downstairs cooking sausages, already-cooked bacon sitting on the table, when Lily came down the stairs dressed in a tartan skirt and a black hooded shirt with a white skull-and-crossbones emblazoned across the front.

"Morning, Dad," Lily greeted him as she slipped into her place at the table.

"Morning, Lils," Harry replied, shooting his daughter a quick smile before turning back to the sausages. "Mum still sleeping?"

Lily snorted.

"Naturally." Her voice was slightly snide; Lily believed in getting the most out of the day, much as Harry himself did, and so she was rather disapproving of her mother's sleeping habits. Harry shot her a stern look.

"Sorry," Lily said, not meaning it.

While superficially Lily appeared to resemble her parents, the knowing were aware that she in fact looked remarkably like someone else. True, Lily's hair was black, like Harry's, but it was sleek and smooth; and her brown, nearly black eyes were not like her Uncle Percy's, as people said; and her high cheekbones and amazingly fair skin were not merely random genes. In fact, Lily's hair, eyes, skin and general appearance belonged to her secret great-great-great-uncle, little Lily Riddle's half-uncle, before baby Lily was adopted and became an Evans. Lily Molly Potter, to put it bluntly, was the spitting image of one Tom Marvolo Riddle, who later became far too ambitious and took on the title of Lord Voldemort.

Needless to say, the Potters had not been happy with this development. Lily had been about six years old and Ginny had been acting strangely around her. When Harry asked her what was wrong, Ginny spilled out her horrified feelings and Harry, upon looking at his daughter, had realised that, indeed, Lily looked like a small Tom Riddle.

Harry had then remembered something that Albus had said, that he had dismissed at the time… the students at Hogwarts had shortly thereafter been greatly amused when a furiously angry Harry and Ginny Potter had stormed into the hall and begun to scream at the headmaster.

Albus had admitted that some thirty years ago he had tried to trace Tom Riddle's family tree and discovered the true identity of one Lily Evans, at the time a sixth year at Hogwarts. He had never felt it necessary to tell her who she was, as she would have undoubtedly found it distressing; and so it had only been he who had known that it was her own uncle who had caused her death.

Albus had then been afflicted by a strong bat-bogey hex before Harry and Ginny took it in turns to yell at him.

Lily herself didn't know who it was that she resembled so much, in both face and form. Few people knew of Voldemort's true identity, and even fewer remembered what he had looked like before mutilating his soul and gaining his monstrous appearance. She had been greatly confused, not to mention hurt – although she did her best to hide these feelings, being the reserved child that she was – when her mother had avoided her. Harry had explained to her that Mummy was going through as hard patch right now and that it wasn't her fault, and that Mummy would soon be back to normal. Indeed, Ginny _was_ soon back to her ordinary self, and so the matter was for the most part forgotten.

To be sure, Harry and Ginny both worried a little when Lily began carrying snakes about with her, crooning at them at odd moments, although since Harry himself had the odd chat with a serpent their was only small. Lily enjoyed dressing in black, but since it was her color and, as she had phrased it, "super-cool" and told them to watch Men In Black this too had only caused a small amount of worry. What worried them most was Lily's reserved, ambitious personality, so like Tom Riddle's in some respects. Harry and Ginny had resolved to do the best they could to support their baby and show her the right path, but sometimes they wondered if their efforts would pay off.

Still, Lily was only just turned eleven, so they had a while yet before they would become _seriously_ worried.

"Your mother works hard," Harry began sternly, "she has a perfect right to get some extra sleep if she wants to."

Lily sighed.

"I know, Dad," she said lightly. "You've told me before. Can we go into Diagon Alley today?"

"Why?"

"I need to get Emperor some more dead rats."

Harry winced. _Too much information_.

"What does Emperor say?"

"_Rats!_" the cobra proclaimed imperiously, slithering out into the kitchen. "_I want rats, Harry! For the love of Asclepius, get me some rats!_"

Harry paused and slowly turned to regard the haughty snake with suspicion.

"Asclepius," he said slowly. "The Snake God." Being friends with Hermione meant you found out about things whether you wanted to or not (and if she was on an 'ancient Greek myths and legends' jag, like she had been when she'd told Harry about Asclepius, it was more likely not). "How in Merlin's name did you find out about him?"

Somehow Harry found himself gazing accusingly at Lily as it clicked.

"You've been reading to him again ,haven't you?"

"_Give me rats, Harry."_

Lily frowned, ignoring Emperor.

"That book I got from Auntie Hermione," she agreed pensively. "It was interesting, but no one here wants me reading things out to them, so I read the cool bits out to him."

"_She does_," agreed the cobra. "_Regular little fountain of knowledge, this one, and increasing every day. I don't mind. Cobras are supposed to be smarter than other snakes. Now that we have had this conversation, can I have some rats?_"

"_Fine!_" Harry yelled in Emperor's direction, sick of the interruptions, "I'll _get_ you some bloody rats! Now shut up!"

He had whirled as he yelled, which was why he ended up shouting in Ginny's bemused face.

_Oh, gods, _Harry groaned,immediately blushing furiously.

"Er…"

"Morning, Harry," his wife said calmly, but still looking bemused. "Weird conversations you have. Morning, Lily sweetie."

"It was Emperor," Harry explained, still feeling mortified. "He kept telling me he wants me to get him some more dead rats."

"I see," Ginny stated. "Harry love, did you know the sausages are burning?"

Harry swore in a way that would have put Lily's Uncle Ron to shame and spun around to rescue the sausages. Lily smirked in amusement as she picked up Emperor and sat him on the table, feeding him bits of bacon until Ginny noticed.

"Lily, stop giving Emperor our breakfast," she scolded. Emperor, who being a cobra understood more than most snakes, gave her a baleful look.

"Don't glare at Mum," Lily told him.

"That better not have been a complaint about me," Ginny said, hearing the hissing and being well-acquainted with her daughter's habit of muttering abuses in parseltongue. Lily gave her an injured look.

"It wasn't! It was telling him not to glare at you," she protested. Ginny sent her an apologetic look.

"Sorry sweetheart."

"Sausages!" Harry announced, dumping the plate on the table with a flourish. One sausage rolled off the plate onto the table, leaving greasy stains on the tablecloth.

"In-deed," Lily drawled.

"Nice work, Harry," Ginny said dryly, staring pointedly at the errant sausage.

Harry glared at his disrespectful daughter.

"Quiet, you," he ordered, pulling out his wand and levitating the sausage back into place before removing the stain.

"How come Mum gets to say stuff like that but I don't?" Lily demanded.

"Because your mother terrifies me. Ow!"

Ginny had whacked him in the arm.

"Sorry, Gin."

Ginny was about to reply when an owl landed on the kitchen table eyeing Emperor warily, and held out a leg with an envelope emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest.


	2. Shopping for School

"Normal speech, and parseltongue"

"_A snake is speaking"_

_Thoughts_

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**SNAKE SPAWN**

**CHAPTER TWO**

Harry found himself in Diagon Alley, with one precocious, slightly-evil (by her own, possible exaggerated description) child and one stuck-up, bigmouthed snake. Knowing the kind of trouble that precocious children and snakes can get into, particularly together, this fact filled him with depression. He knew, he just _knew_ that something horrible and chaotic was going to happen some time today. After all, on the rare occasions that Lily and her familiar were taken to Diagon Alley (or anywhere, really) something always did.

Lily, still in her muggle clothes, tugged impatiently on his arm.

"The Magical Menangerie!" she declared, and set off in that direction, Emperor wound around her neck and sitting proudly on her shoulder. Harry groaned and followed.

The dead rats were purchased, much to Emperor's satisfaction.

"School robes now," Harry said firmly, knowing that Lily would get out of buying clothing if she could.

Lily glowered but obediently followed her father into Madam Malkin's. Harry didn't blame her for being sulky about it; he hated clothes shopping as well.

Several sets of redheads looked up as they entered, and Harry suppressed yet another groan, while Lily looked as though she wanted to bolt.

The Weasley family was, by now, quite enormous. Each of the six Weasley boys had continued the tradition of several children, so that there were no less than nineteen Weasley children aged eighteen or under.

Bill and Fleur had four girls, Emily (18), Darcy (17), Madeleine (15), and Gabrielle (14), with Madeleine being a Gryffindor while the other three were Ravenclaws;

Charlie and Grace (a fellow dragon-handler) had three children, Christian (15), Elisabeth (12) and Arthur (11), the elder two in Gryffindor with Arthur yet to receive his Hogwarts letter;

Percy and Penelope were the parents of fourteen year old Gryffindor twins Persephone and Annelise, while Gideon was too young to begin Hogwarts at only ten years old;

Fred and Angelina had twins as well, thirteen year old Pepita and George (Gryffindor), Kyle (12) and young Andrew (8);

George and Alicia had Frederick (7), Robert (6), and Gladys (4);

While Harry's good friends Ron and Hermione had only two children, eleven year old Athena, (presumably starting at Hogwarts in September like young Arthur Weasley, Kyle Weasley and Harry's own Lily), and Adam (9). Frankly, the only ones among his many nephews and nieces that Harry could actually recall the names of (how Ginny did it she refused to say, although Harry suspected she knew some obscure spell) were Athena and Adam, because they visited with Ron and Hermione so often, and Pepita and George, because the twins were even worse than Fred and George had been (a fact which made the two very proud, although it made Angelina extremely frazzled).

The fact that there were so many Weasley children with the potential to need new school robes at this time meant that Ron, Hermione, Athena, Fred, Angelina, Pepita, George (the younger), Kyle, Andrew, and oddly Madeleine were all crowded into the small store.

"Ah," said Harry helplessly. Ron grinned at him.

"Harry!"

"Good to see you," Fred beamed, while Angelina smiled and Hermione waved and the air was filled with a chorus of "Uncle Harry!" and "Lily!" from Harry's numerous nieces and nephews.

"Hello, Weasleys," Lily greeted them. She never bothered trying to list them all off by name. She saw Kyle and Athena, but –

"Where's Arthur?"

The noise stilled, then started up again.

"Didn't you hear?"

"I thought Uncle Charlie would have owled you."

"Or fire-called,"

"Or Auntie Grace would."

"'Ee izz a squib," Madeleine explained matter-of-factly, tucking some of her amazing hair behind one ear. "'Ee did not get 'izz 'Ogwarts letter."

Harry heard, and looked at the other adults for explanation.

"Terrible," said Fred, shaking his head.

"What happened?"

"No one had checked," Hermione explained before Ron could do more than open his mouth, "everyone had just assumed he was a wizard. When everyone else got their letters this morning Charlie called Albus about it, and it turns out that Arthur's name wasn't on the Hogwarts list. Albus came over, of course, and did a magic test, but unfortunately the list was right. Arthur doesn't have nearly enough magic to be considered a wizard. He might be able to do a simple charm, like 'Lumos,' but nothing more than that."

"Charlie and Grace are crushed," Ron said, "and of course you can imagine what it did to the little bloke. Went tearing off to his room in tears, and Elisabeth got herself grounded by saying something unkind to him about it."

Meanwhile, Lily was talking to her cousins as Madam Malkin fussed over her with tape measures and fabric and pins.

"I'm going to be Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, I think," Athena said thoughtfully, "although of course no one can be sure. I borrowed Mum's copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ and it says that there's been several cases of people being Sorted and later being re-Sorted because they believed that they had been put in the wrong house. And after all, Mum was a Gryffindor herself, although she really should have been in Ravenclaw, don't you think?"

"No guessing," Pepita began.

"Which house you'll be in," continued George.

"Ravenclaw for sure!" Pepita finished.

Kyle looked thoughtful.

"I guess I'll be in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw," he decided. "I don't really fit in Gryffindor, and of course a Weasley would never end up in Slytherin."

"Don't be so sure," Lily warned. "There'd never been a Potter in Slytherin either, but the Hat wanted to put Dad there. He only ended up in Gryffindor because he flat-out argued with it."

The others looked disbelieving.

"No way," piped up Andrew. Lily shrugged, making Madam Malkin cluck in annoyance.

"Stand _still_, dear."

"Which 'ouse do you think zzat you will be in?" Madeleine asked curiously. Houses didn't really matter much to her, although she steered clear of the Slytherins after an annoyed delegation of her fellow Gryffindors told her that she was disgracing their house.

"Oh, Slytherin, no question," Lily replied airily.

"_Of course,_" Emperor announced, puffing himself up with pride. "_Nothing but the house of snakes for my dear hatchling._"

Madame Malkin screamed at the appearance of the snake. The adults turned and Harry, seeing the cause of the disruption, hastily scooped up the snake and found himself facing a frightened and wrathful Madam Malkin while the Weasleys watched in anticipation.

"He's my daughter's, um, pet," Harry explained weakly, ignoring Emperor's outraged shouts of "_Pet! Bah!_" and Fred and Ron's sniggers. "I'm afraid she must have set him down earlier."

He couldn't resist sending Lily an _I'll deal with you later_ look that she returned with wide, innocent eyes.

"Bringing a snake into my shop!" fumed the proprietress. "The idea!" But she only turned away, muttering angrily; the Potters were one of her largest accounts. Lily smirked at her outraged father.

Harry spent a moment getting control of himself, aware that his eyes had flashed red and that the Weasley children were making exlamations of "cool!" and "that's creepy." When Harry had deflected the killing curse as a baby a fragment of Voldemort's soul had come to rest in him, and the death of Voldemort some thirteen years earlier had activated that fragment, dormant until now. Harry was usually capable of squashing the little voice that suggested doing unscrupulous and/or unpleasant things, but whenever something really tried his patience he had to suppress the urge to begin shooting _avada kedavra_ or _crucio_ in all directions. His eyes also had a tendency to go red.

Control regained, Harry opened his once-again green eyes to find the adults watching him with expressions of varying degrees of nervousness. There was a collective sigh of relief as they saw that he was himself again.

"You needn't worry so much," he told them, irritated. "I only lost control that one time, and it was only because I didn't know it could happen."

"Mate, you screamed that we were mudbloods and blood-traitors and tried to kill us all," Ron reminded him. "I think we have a right to worry."

"Yeah, Harry, if we're not careful you might start sacrificing infants and trying to take over the world," Fred said with a straight face. Angelina poked him hard in the side. Harry glared as Fred winced.

"Not funny," he said flatly. Seeing the slight reddish tinge to Harry's eyes, Lily interposed smoothly.

"I've got my robes, Dad," she informed him. "Bookstore, then Ollivander's and the quidditch supplies store?"

Harry's (entirely green) eyes lit up at the mention of quidditch.

"Alright," he agreed. The two Potter's made their farewells and left the store. Once outside Harry dumped Emperor on Lily's shoulder where the snake curled happily around her neck.

Once in Flourish and Blott's, Harry settled himself down near the counter as Lily disappeared into the rows of shelves. Twenty-five minutes later she reappeared, staggering slightly, and carrying a large stack of books. Harry put down the cup of tea he'd cadged off the salesgirl and took the pile from her. He looked through, reading out the titles as he went, and his eyebrows rose until they were almost level with this hairline. He turned and looked hard at his daughter, who stared back. Harry shrugged, muttering about dark-lords-in-training, to pay for the pile of books.

"If I catch you using any of these," Harry said warningly, as he paid for her purchases, "then you'll be in big trouble."

Lily nodded obediently, and Harry knew resignedly that she was thinking to herself that she simply wouldn't get _caught_ using them.

_The problem with children_, Harry thought, ignoring many other possible endings for that phrase, _is that they end up with all your worst habits._

As the pair entered Ollivander's a small bell rang somewhere and a moment later the man himself appeared.

"Ah, Mr and Miss Potter," he said in his dry, papery voice. "here for your wand I assume, Miss Potter?"

Lily nodded, fixing him with an unblinking stare that matched his own.

"Yes, sir."

"Hmm, let me see," he muttered, pulling a box down from the stacks on the shelves. "Unicorn hair, holly, twelves inches," he noted, handing the wand to Lily. She gave it a wave.

"No," he observed, snatching it out of her hands and handing her another wand instead. "Try this one. Powdered dragon scale, yew, thirteen inches."

Yet again nothing happened. Putting the second wand away, Ollivander sent he a sharp glance and his hands stilled. "I wonder…" he said to. Harry stiffened, knowing what had happened when _that_ phrase was last uttered…

Ollivander disappeared into the bowels of the shop, returning with a rather dusty box and pulling out a dark, slim wand.

"Phoenix feather in basilisk venom," he stated, making Harry do a double-take and Lily blink at him. "An unusual combination and difficult to obtain, and usually somewhat unstable. Elder, thirteen inches."

Lily waved the wand cautiously, and suddenly there was tension swelling in the room, slowly focusing around her, gathering strength and taking shape…

"Yes," said Ollivander, sounding almost awed, his voice shattering the magic and leaving everything ordinary once more, although Lily's eyes looked blacker than usual. "Yes, most definitely your wand. It takes a rare witch or wizard to control the wand with of such a particular double-core, Miss Potter. We can certainly expect great things from you." His eyes flicked to Harry, standing as stiff as a board, eyes like hard emeralds. "It may interest you to know that the phoenix whose feather is contained in your wand gave only two other feathers. As for the basilisk venom… I purchased it from a Severus Snape, who I believe obtained it from a basilisk slain by none other than your own father."

Lily turned in astonishment to look at her father.

"It was supposed to be for Hogwarts use only," Harry said in a strained, grating voice. His eyes flickered, and Lily's eyes widened.

"Uh-oh," she uttered as Harry's eyes turned a brilliant crimson.

"_Traitor!_" Harry hissed. _I will deal with him!_"

Lily had a flash of Ollivander's face, filled with consternation, as she launched herself forward to cling to her father's arm, and there was a great _BOOM_ of displaced air as the two of them Disapparated through Apparition wards.

Ollivander sighed. He really wouldn't want to be at Hogwarts right now.


End file.
